Holmes v. Chartiers Oil Co.

Citations

• 138 Pa. 546
• 21 A. 231
• 1891 Pa. LEXIS 1133

Syllabus

<p>[To be reported.]</p> <p>(a) A verbal contract was made for the drilling of an oil well at the price of $1.75 per foot, the depth not being specified. After developing oil, the contractor drilled further, until nearly through the oil sand, when the tools were lost in the well and could not be recovered. The • owner took possession, tubed the well, and pumped oil for over eighteen months :</p> <p>1. If the well, when possession of it was taken by the owner, had been drilled to such a depth as answered the intended purpose, the contractor was entitled to recover the contract price, less such damages as would compensate the owner for any loss occasioned by the failure to remove the tools from the well: Gillespie Tool Co. v. Wilson, 123 Pa. 19, distinguished.</p> <p>2. When the controversy, in an action upon such contract, is as to whether there has been such substantial compliance by the contractor with the terms of his contract as would entitle him to recover thereon, evidence as to the average cost of drilling a well, at the time the one in question was drilled, is irrelevant.</p> <p>3. An offer to prove, by the superintendent of an oil company, the depth of a well drilled for the company, when the witness has no personal knowledge of the fact, all his knowledge being derived from reports made to him by a subordinate who made the measurements, is inadmissible.</p>